1. Field of the invention
To enable accurate passing and shooting, the surface of a lacrosse ball requires tactile grip. With continued use, the ball surface becomes smooth, or polished, losing its characteristic grip and is commonly referred to as a “greaser.” As a consequence, the ball is difficult to control when passing or shooting. Typically such polished balls are discarded and replaced with new balls at expense to players, coaches, and teams. It is desirable to have a means to easily resurface the ball and restore the characteristic grip. Such means of resurfacing should be inexpensive, easy to execute, and widely available to lacrosse players, coaches, and teams.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The popularity of the sport of lacrosse has lagged that of other well know sports such as baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Only in recent years has lacrosse witnessed a significant increase in popularity. As such, there are very limited examples of prior art describing inventions directed toward lacrosse ball resurfacing. There are numerous inventions designed for resurfacing other types of sport and game balls, including, but not limited to golf, bowling, and billiard balls. Notable examples include bowling ball resurfacing devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,932,111 and 7,892,073. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,922,111, by Tessmar et al., the described device consists of a sack lined with an abrasive surface that resurfaces the ball when the user manually shakes the sack. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,892,073, by Smania et al., the described device is a cup-shaped tool comprised of an inner abrasive surface that is placed in contact with the bowling ball. A power drill is coupled to the opposite side of the device and is used to spin the abrasive surface and recondition the bowling ball. Golf ball deburring and cleaning devices have been described, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,961,264, 8,469,773, 8,177,605, and 8,113,919. A billiard ball cleaning device has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,550,882. These devices are tailored to the specific needs of golf and billiard balls and are motorized devices of complicated design and construction.
In regards to lacrosse ball specific resurfacing devices, the prior art contains four US patent applications. In application US 2012/0058715, Roze, describes a hand held device with a concave end lined with an abrasive surface. The device is designed to resurface a single lacrosse ball at a time and the device is completely manual in use. As such, a user will become fatigued if attempting to resurface multiple balls in a single session. Patent applications US 2014/0038495, US 2014/0273769, and US 2014/0349553 describe devices capable of resurfacing multiple lacrosse balls simultaneously, but are more complicated in design and construction than the manual device described by Roze above.
The object of the current invention is to provide a simplistic device that is economical to construct and easy to use. Since many children, as young as four in age, play lacrosse, the device described here is designed to be easy for a child to use under the supervision of an adult. The device will enable lacrosse players of all ages to maintain the surface of their lacrosse balls in excellent condition in an economic manner.